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User blog:Golurk 88/The Fast Heavy: ARL 44
Note: As with my last blog, this isn’t related to War Robots. It is a blog on a different game, World of Tanks Blitz. Introduction World of Tanks has many different classes of vehicles. From Light Tanks to Tank Destroyers, there is a huge amount of variety. And one of the most powerful classes in the game are heavy tanks. This class boasts many of the most feared war machines, such as the IS, Maus and Black Prince. All of these heavy vehicles share relatively slow speed, good protection and decent/good firepower. But since were Heavy Tanks ever fast? Many will disagree, but the ARL 44 might just change their minds. Firepower The ARL 44, like most heavies, has awesome firepower. But unlike the Russian IS and KV series, it has a relatively fast reload of around 7-8 seconds (the fastest reload is probably the Black Prince which has a 17pdr with a 4 second reload, and the slowest includes many Russian tanks that take around 20+ seconds). The 90mm DCA 45 is undoubtedly one of the best guns for Tier VI...in fact Wargaming has decided that it is so good that French heavies are equipped with it until and including Tier VIII (it is also present as an auto cannon in the AMX 12t line). Usually dealing more than 200 damage (hitpoints), the DCA 45 is a great all-round weapon. There are, however, a few drawbacks. The first one is that the DCA 45’s barrel is very long, much longer than most guns. If the enemy players are clever, they will realise that you are a larger threat than normal ARL 44s and will target you first (a bit like German tankers when they spotted Sherman Fireflies in WW2). Another issue that could arise is aiming difficulty at close range. The second one is the amount of research that you will have to do. The ARL 44’s default gun is the 90mm DCA 30, the same gun used on the BDR G1, AKA the Steel Potato. While the DCA 30 excels against Tier V tanks, it has slow rate of fire and usually bounces off Tier VI vehicles. The next gun available after this costs more than 15k of XP, and is called the 90mm F3. This has a higher rate of fire and deals decent damage, but is nothing special and is outclassed by other heavy guns of the same tier. Once you have researched the DCA 45 though, you will have acquired a monster of a gun that doesn’t compromise in important areas and offers you a fast paced, high damage experience. Protection The ARL 44 offers you good protection for Tier VI...at least in terms of frontal armour, which is 120mm thick on the hull and 110mm on the turret. While this isn’t as thick as the seemingly-invincible Churchill VII, it is better than most Tier VI American, German and Russian tanks, such as the M6 and KV-1S, more so when you consider that the hull front and turret have sloped armour, which increases the chances of a shot deflection. Once you get to the ARL 44’s sides and rear however, everything is thrown out of the window. It seems that the French designers, having emphasised good protection on previous tanks such as the R35, AMX 38 and B1 simply forgot how to do so when they came to the ARL 44. Let’s be honest, 50mm of hull side armour and 30mm side turret armour belongs in Tier IV (or in Tier VI-VIII Japanese tanks, but Japanese tanks never had good armour)...not in Tier VI. This means that players must avoid exposing their sides at all costs, and if they absolutely must, then angling is extremely important. The armour on the turret and hull rear is the same as on the sides, so they are slightly lower than comparable Tier VI tanks, but the weight saved from this does affect the tank’s speed, as we shall soon see. As with the firepower, there are quite a few disadvantages. The most glaringly obvious thing is the default turret, the ACL 1. I don’t care whether you like having 30mm more armour on the turret sides, having an enormous barn/shed as a turret not only looks ridiculous, but also means that you have literally no chance of deflecting enemy shots and only have 900 hitpoints, which isn’t great for a heavy. What’s more, you’ll make those KV-2 pilots believing that their turrets are too small. Speed The ARL 44 starts of slow, with only 19% speed. However, once you manage to upgrade the engine and tracks (it’s expensive, I know) you will have almost doubled it to 36%. While your turning speed remains average and you won’t be winning any races against the VK 28.01 or LTTB, you can reach speeds of up to 40 km/h (usually above 30) on flat terrain. This means that you can get to battles much quicker than contemporaries such as the sluggish Churchill VII, and potentially save your teammates’ lives. Considering that most heavy tanks barely have 20% speed and struggle to make it to 20 km/h...having 36% speed and up top 40 km/h speed is fantastic, a distant dream for most heavy pilots. Overview The fully upgraded ARL 44, having swapped its ineffective main gun and enormous turret for far superior ones and with a new engine, is arguably the best Tier VI tank and is the best all-round performer in my opinion. With good armour (ignoring the sides and rear), great speed and awesome firepower, this armoured French knight is not to be underestimated...let’s just hope he won’t wave the white flag as soon as he sees enemy though. Next Up: Damage? What Damage?- Black Prince Category:Blog posts